Ball State loses 15th straight

MUNCIE This one was so much like so many of the others, yet at one key juncture, it was utterly different.

Ball State's men's basketball team has taken its many losses this season with similar scripts. There's usually a big push somewhere along the way, often late, enough to shrink the lead down and make it feel close before the win doesn't come. But Tuesday, against Eastern Michigan in the twilight of the season, there was a stretch of play so problematic, it set this one apart.

Ball State's 67-60 Mid-American Conference loss at Worthen Arena wasn't a team competing hard against someone that simply outclasses it. The Cardinals (7-21, 2-15 Mid-American Conference West) just turned a quick start into a hole with a mess of miscues, and against a team that had struggled, took their 15th loss in a row.

"I'm disappointed with some of the turnovers," said Whitford, listing off moments his players jumped before having someone to pass to. "We had a couple bad decisions in transition."

CLOSE

Breaking down what went wrong in Ball State's loss to EMU
Ben Breiner

But he also weighed it as part of the process, looking at the likes of forward Franko House trying to get his feel inside a quirky defense. House and teammate Bo Calhoun each scored a team-high 13 points.

"That's how you get better as a player," Whitford said. "What you really focus on as a coach is that part of it. Is your intent right? Are you competing right? Are you able to put yourself in position to learn?"

His team made a 14-point deficit shrink to 3 in under eight minutes, but the Cardinals traded seconds for possessions, as the Eagles (18-12, 7-10) bled clock. Things could have been different, if not for a 13-point swing early.

No team can afford eight turnovers in the opening nine-or-so minutes. Ball State certainly can't, especially against a squad built in the mold of Eastern Michigan.

The Eagles want to choke out teams with a long and rangy 2-3 zone. Once the Cardinals fell behind, it only became harder.

One key tweak was a near-complete denial of the high post, usually the key against any zone. In the first meeting, going through forward House there produced multiple open 3s. Tuesday, trying to feed him meant moving the ball back and forth, eating away seconds until the Cardinals had to go right into the teeth.

"We challenged our guards not to allow that to happen," Eastern Michigan coach Rob Murphy said. "We wanted them to be very physical up top when they got posted. We wanted them to continue to fight as opposed to laying on the screen as we did the first time."

It wasn't exactly clear how much of a role Eastern's length played, but for stretches, the Cardinals were gun-shy on the outside. Good ball movement yielded a relatively open shot, but it only led to a pump fake, maybe a few dribbles and then a kickout as first the defense, and then offense, reset.

"We had a lot of guys that were gun-shy today," said House, noting these close games seem to come down to a shot here or a play there. "We had shots that we should have took and we didn't. … And then there were shots that we pump faked and we should have just shot it."

Ball State managed to at least hit the offensive glass (14 boards), but when it tried to run, more often than not it became a fumbled ball. Of the team's 17 turnovers, more than a few were the sort of senseless, playing-too-fast giveaways that give coaches gray hair early.

That powered an unusually solid offensive day for the Eagles. They had issues in the half court, though they did get a few more inside buckets than usual and some timely 3s. But mostly it was the 22 points off turnovers and sterling 17-for-18 at the free-throw line.

At game's end, even if this one was unlike the others, it remained so oddly similar. Another late comeback, another fleeting instance of a one-possession game, far too late for Ball State to do anything about it.

And with 15 in a row, the wear is there.

"It's always tough," senior center Matt Kamieniecki said. "I think in the back of your mind, you keep thinking about kind of the losing streak we've been on. But I think you've just got to keep pushing forward and just take one game at a time, put the loss behind you."